Of Cherries and a Gran Torino.

The rest of my weekend was rather uneventful. I finished reading The Bell Jar, and then met up with Alex for dinner. We drank apple cider and ate cherries. I have never eaten cherries before. Crazy, right? Well, despite my first one being a complete mess – I had a problem separating the pit from the fruit and stained my fingers with cherry juice – they were delicious. We watched Gran Torino later, and I highly recommend it. Clint Eastwood just shows (again) that he can do great work behind or in front of the camera, and his age is not a factor.

I had to work on Sunday. It went all right. Before I went in, I had lunch and I finished watching Arrested Development (Finally!). I called my dad as I walked, and it looks like they’ve found the perfect house in Kentucky. I’m excited for them. They sent me the link, and it looks beautiful. I hope they get it. Above all, I can’t wait to see them. My plans and their plans may have to shift around for me to visit, but that is perfectly fine.

At work, I started reading On the Road, and at first I didn’t like it because the stream-of-consciousness style of writing really muddles my mind when I read, but now it is rather enjoyable. Kerouac was writing about another world, really. I can’t imagine dropping everything to travel around the country, hitchhiking, riding the rails, shacking up with random people, washing dishes in the back of a restaurant to pay for a meal, and working random jobs just to have some cash. One can’t really get away with doing those things anymore. The closest I’m probably going to get to this type of living is right now, sleeping on my friends’ couch, biking or walking to do four or five hours of work, and rationing my food and money so I don’t burn it all in one fell swoop.

As crazy and drug-addled as some of the people were, I would say Kerouac was really living. He was feeling the breath and the beat of America, and I will probably be stuck in the Midwest for a few more years, if not longer. I might always be stuck here.

I think probably my favorite little passage so far in On the Road was when Sal, Marylou, and Dean take their clothes off and the three of them drive naked and then stop to see some sights and Marylou and Sal put on coats while Dean goes out completely nude. It highly amused me.

After my Sunday shift, I stopped by Alex’s room to hang out. I was there for about an hour, but he did not really want to hang out. I was exhausted anyway, possibly from getting so much sun lately. I went to bed around 10:00, but I couldn’t sleep. We got a visit from Tanner and Townsend because they were going on a trip with James but couldn’t get a hold of him. I turned on the light in the living room and sat on the couch covered in my blanket, and I gave them directions to James’s house. They left and didn’t come back, so I assumed my directions worked. It was nice to see them, albeit briefly.

I had one of my early shifts this morning. I didn’t get much time to read, either, though the time seemed to fly. I went back to the house afterwards, ate lunch, finished a word search on Crosswords DS, and fell asleep for about three hours. I knew I was tired, but I didn’t realize I was that tired.

I ate dinner and read, and Alex came by around 6:30. We went for a walk, and it looked like it was going to rain, but it didn’t. The cool breeze was welcome after the past hot and humid week. We came back, ate some Oreos, and watched a little bit of Star Trek: The Next Generation on SciFi. Alex left around 8:00, but I don’t blame him. There was nothing to do, and he has a test tomorrow.

I have been hanging out here the rest of the evening after he left.  Nothing exciting, though I shouldn’t be allowed to surf the Internet as much as I do, because I see websites about sewing, crocheting, knitting, dyeing, crafting, and cooking, and all I want to do is create. My latest knitting project’s yarn, access to a sewing machine, and all the rest of my craft stuff is in Pendleton, I don’t know how to crochet yet, and I have a very limited money supply since I need to save up for books and other school stuff. I don’t have a lot of options, and I can accept that. I just don’t like the fact that my fingers are itching, begging me to create something, and I have to tell them to calm down and take a rest for a while. I don’t have much time in the school year to do all the things I enjoy, so I have been trying to make the most out of my summer, obviously.

The best part about this week, though? I get to go back to Pendleton Wednesday afternoon. It’s true! My regular days off are Sunday and Thursday, and then the library is closed on Friday and Saturday for the July 4th holiday, so I get four days off – woo! I don’t even care that I will be losing some hours this week.

I am tired, bitter, and crazy.

I need to spend at least one night in my own bed, spend a few days with my mom, and eat actual good food! I mean, I know I’m the one cooking my own meals here in Muncie, but when you’re on a tight budget, you can’t exactly go gourmet…

Seriously, I don’t think I have never been so excited to go back to Pendleton in my life. Wednesday afternoon can’t come quickly enough.

Of Lilies and Libraries.

I have been busy this past week or so. Last week, the weekly poker game was at our house and I worked a double shift (wrote about that here). Anyway, that went well. It was nice to see people, though I was shy.

Sarah and Thom came to Muncie on Thursday (when I picked up another short shift), and they brought Leigh and Nick with them. Alex, James, and I met up with them, and we went to an arcade and I played a lot of Skeeball and Leigh and I got plastic brontosauruses and she named hers Perry and I named mine Walter. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings and had tasty, spicy, wings and saw a lot of birds camping out on the sign outside the restaurant. Then we just hung around the house for a while, and around 11:30, Lemmy, Dom, Matt, Sarah, Thom, Leigh, Nick, and I went to the playground and played tag. I shimmied up inside one of the wooden spires while Matt was ‘it’ and then Tom wanted to hide there, but he popped up between my legs and I was scared and screamed and kicked him by accident.

Saturday, Caitie came up to visit. We went to the mall and I bought a tank top, Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, and The Time Traveler’s Wife. We met her friend David at Starbucks, and it was interesting to see him again. He’s actually the reason why Caitie and I met, though I hardly know him. We went to his house for a while and he burnt Caitie a CD of Elvis Costello, and then we had to go.

Alex came back from visiting his family, and I was surprised to see him. I don’t remember all of what we did, but I know we went to Meijer. We also probably ate ice cream (We’re really digging Häagen-Dazs’s Five ice cream) and watched either Stargate SG-1 or The Tudors.

Teddy called on Tuesday and said he was coming to visit. He wanted to know from Lemmy if he could stay at the house. The guys played Shadowrun, and though I missed most of the session, the ending was pretty entertaining.

I had to take the Praxis I exam on Thursday, so I studied for at least two hours on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in the late afternoon. I stayed with Alex on Wednesday night so that I would be guaranteed a good night’s rest for the next day. I think the exam went all right. I’m just glad it’s over, and I hope I won’t have to retake it. It’s a $130 test – ouch.

I spent the rest of Thursday relaxing. I called Jennifer since I hadn’t talked to her in a while, and then I called my mom. After that, I lounged on an old quilt in the Quad and read The Bell Jar (as written about here).

Friday, I worked as usual, but now I got a brand new shiny name badge! Yeah, I know it’s dorky, but it makes me feel a little important. I also think it’s pretty funny. I’ve been working in Educational Resources for eight months now, and I finally know that one of the girls who work in Music Collections is named Emily. She never talked to me before until yesterday when she checked some items out. She seems pretty cool.

We got Gran Torino in, and since Alex and I have wanted to see it, I asked, “Can I call dibs on something that we just got? How do we call dibs? I call dibs!” So yeah, I put the call number on the DVD case and checked it out first. I was really excited. I’m such a nerd.

Teddy was waiting for me when I got off work. We were walking to Noodles & Company (and it was blistering hot), and there was a guy painting the fire hydrant yellow who said hello to me… by name. It took me a minute to figure out who it was, but it was this guy, Grant, who was in my class at Pendleton. It was one of those crazy random happenstances, but it was good to talk to him for a few minutes before the bus to Northwest Plaza showed up and Teddy and I hopped on it to go the rest of the way to Noodles & Company. Lunch was delicious. Oh my goodness, so tasty. I happened to be wearing my Army of Darkness shirt again, and the cashier said he loved my shirt and it made me happy. Most of all, it was good to see Teddy again.

We enjoyed lunch, and then went down to the Wizard’s Keep for a while, where Alex met us. We went to the house and hung out, watched Army of Darkness, Alex and I got bored, walked to the gas station to get tea (where the clerk said he thought my shirt was cool, but he didn’t know what Army of Darkness was), and walked back.

Teddy, Lemmy, and I went to Fazoli’s for dinner, even though I know I shouldn’t be spending so much money on food when I have plenty to eat, but I figured I only get to see Teddy once in a blue moon when we’re out of school, so it was okay.

Teddy, Lemmy, and Pete had a Nerf gun fight when we got back, and Alex and I sat out on the porch for a while, talking about trees, Pokémon, and other things. Teddy started playing Fable, and we were all just sitting around, and I started to get tired, and I guess I fell asleep around 10:30 on Alex’s shoulder. He woke me up when he wanted to leave. I asked him if I snored, he said no, but I did drool a little on his sleeve and I felt bad about that.

I went to bed immediately after that, and I slept heavily, completely unaware of the world.

I went to work this morning. I was five minutes late, but that’s okay because I only sat down for maybe twenty minutes during my four-hour shift.

I was cleaning some of the computer desks, and there was a guy at one of the computers. I don’t know how my eyes saw it (I swear, I don’t usually glance over patron’s shoulders), but I thought I saw something inappropriate. I kept cleaning, and all the while I was thinking, “That was porn. Oh my goodness, there is porn on the computer and what do I do and I should tell Abdalla and what do we do?”

Well, I didn’t have to bring it up. Abdalla did first. I brought down the DVDs from the drop and he asked me to go over to the man and see if he was looking at dirty things. I called him to the back as I was discharging items and told him what I saw. The man eventually left, though, so that was nice. I just think it is really awkward and it is (of course) inappropriate to view in a public place.

Teddy was at the library when I got out of work. I was originally just going to walk down to the Wizard’s Keep with him so he could watch Alex, Lemmy, Pete, Matt, and all the other guys play Warhammer, but then he bought me lunch at the MT Cup, and it was really nice. I left him at the Keep, and then I went back to the house, where I began watching more episodes of the third season of Arrested Development on Hulu. I really liked being all alone. But then Dom and Adam came back from the wedding they went to and were shortly followed by Lemmy, Teddy, and Matt. And even though I like all these guys and they’re a lot of fun, I needed a little time to myself.

I left, and as I walked along, listening to Garbage, I admired a set of lilies they planted by the parking garage at the student center. There are lilies all over campus, of all sorts of colors, be they orange, yellow, pink, or red. I love lilies, they’re my favorite flower. Alex gave me a bouquet of lilies on our first date, and I had only briefly mentioned it, and I couldn’t believe he remembered, and I started crying in the dinky women’s bathroom as Caitie tried to fix the straps on my little black dress so that my bra wouldn’t be visible.

Anyway, I stood in front of a spray of orange lilies and touched one. I wanted to pluck it and put it in my hair. I felt the waxy stem with my fingers, and was near to bending the stem so I could break it, when I decided against it. They were too pretty just to break off and let them die. I kept walking, and ended up in the only other place I knew where to go. The library.

Tehilah made fun of me when I came back to check out season three of Arrested Development (just trying to cover my bases – I’m almost done with it!), but she knows why I come back. I’m now sitting on one of the (ungodly slow) desktops on the fourth floor, and the desk and mouse are sticky with what looks like spilled cherry Kool-Aid.

People are disgusting.

Of Books and Trees.

I stepped out onto the porch and the hot summer air greeted me immediately. I jumped off the porch, careful not to become tangled up in the dry, thorny rose bushes and unlocked my bicycle from its post.

I mounted my vehicle and pedaled furiously down the alley out onto the street made of cracked pavement, broken glass, and trash. My bicycle rode over many bumps on the street, all of which I felt rattle my bones and my teeth.

I found myself at the Quad, a near heaven in the middle of campus, nearly deserted. I parked my bicycle by a tree, took the old, thin, stained quilt from my hand-knitted bag, and lay it on the grass underneath the overlapping arms of the nearby trees, which provided wonderful shade but still allowed a bit of sun to shine through the leaves, much like a green stained-glass window. I kicked off my worn-thin flip-flops, through which I could feel every rock I stepped on, and lay down on the quilt, feeling the warm breeze and the prickly grass under my ugly feet.

I took a library book out of my bag, feeling its soft cover and water-damaged pages. The Bell Jar. I was enjoying it immensely. In fact, I think it is a beautifully written book. Maybe I feel like Sylvia Plath was writing some things I have felt, or do feel. I love her description of a hot bath, and now that is one thing I so dearly want. I want to go home and have a hot bath, and possibly eat some scrambled eggs. She wrote about those, too.

I still have my apprehensions, though. I am enjoying and relating so much to a novel written by a mentally disturbed woman who eventually killed herself by sticking her head in the oven.

I chose to read my last chapter in a tree. There is a nice large one on campus by the art museum. I packed up my quilt and walked my bicycle out into the light – glittering, bright, and hot. I began climbing the tree. There was an older man sitting on a bench, reading. He stared at me, no doubt questionably. I found a comfortable fork in the branches and sat there, resting my back against the trunk of the monstrous tree. I climbed to the top, once or twice, but at that time, the branches were bare. These branches were thick with dark red leaves that shine ruby-like in the sunlight.

My cell phone fell out of my pocket. I thought about climbing down to get it, but then I decided against it. I dropped my bag down to meet my phone, and then my shoes followed. My feet dangled in the warm air as I read more of Plath’s words, and I do not think I have felt that peaceful in a long while.

Of People and… People.

My weekend was nice. I worked on Saturday and Abdalla, who just took a three-week vacation to Egypt, was back.  I love it that he calls me “Sunshine” when I show up to work. Then, I went to Alex’s room, had lunch, and then we went to my co-worker Tehillah’s oboe/English horn recital. We saw my boss, Julie, there too. I think it was an interesting and relaxing thing to do on a Saturday. Then I went back to the house for a while.

Alex and I had homemade nachos for dinner and watched In Bruges (which he had seen before) and Idiocracy (which I had seen before). Nothing much happened on Sunday, except I finished my bright green scarf and I finished reading The Picture of Dorian Gray. I went to the library and picked up a book on vegetarianism, my next read – Peter Pan, and I looked at a Praxis I preparation guide. I take the test next week. I also called my dad, and they’re doing well. Okay, so maybe I was a busy bee on Sunday after all.

After work and lunch on Monday, I went to Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann Fabrics. I got the yarn I needed for my new project – a hat, and then they had a sale at Jo-Ann’s. I bought the yarn for the sweater I want to make, a sock needle set, and a set of cable needles – most of which was covered by a gift card I got for either Christmas or my birthday. Go me!

Alex picked me up from Jo-Ann’s, and he needed to go to Hobby Lobby. Then we went to Hallmark so I could get Father’s Day cards. I’m so lucky I didn’t forget.

Later, I watched Pineapple Express while the guys played a game of Warhammer. Exciting, I know…

Today, I worked,  and I’m back at work right now. Why? Well, Abdallah hadn’t been feeling well, so he went to the doctor yesterday. He’s now in the hospital awaiting diagnosis. Then Tehillah had hours posted, and Amanda called in sick. So I decided I would cover some of those hours. I went back to the house, ate dinner and took a nap, and I’m back here until 8:00. Whew.

I thought it was funny, today at work. I’m starting to get some regular patrons. There’s this cute Japanese guy who has come in these past two days to check out equipment and he’s really friendly. There are numerous people who only ask for headphones. There’s one woman and her two children who check out movies. I had a few curveballs today. Two young Mormon men came in for a laptop, and one guy looking for the series True Blood complimented me on my Army of Darkness shirt.

The weekly poker game is at the house  tonight. There’s going to be a lot of people there, some of whom I haven’t seen in a long time. Some people, I honestly don’t want to see. I think I’m starting to become more like my dad’s cat, Oreo. Like, “Oh look! People! I’m going to go hide now…” I don’t mean to be antisocial, but there’s just a part of me anymore that just doesn’t care.

We’ll see how things go.

Of Cats and Custard.

Ah, another week. A week of  Nerf gun fights, getting my power cord back, reading, knitting, and watching the second season of Arrested Development and 27 Dresses (I’m a sucker for cheesy romance movies sometimes,  and I hate it.).

This has also been a week of breaking my baby toe, being so tired I couldn’t see straight, unwanted houseguests, and because of the combination of those two, screwing up my knitting and not knowing what to do about it, especially since I was so close to the end.

This has also been a week of work. Work, work, work. I am actually at work right now. I love my job, Even though I already worked a five-hour shift today, I don’t mind being here for another four-hour shift.  Actually, I feel like I live here. I wish I could have a cot in the back and just make it my home. I remember reading a book in about third grade about kids getting locked into a library for a night. I always wanted that to happen. That, and a freak snowstorm where we all had to spend the night at school. I don’t know, maybe I was a weird kid – but I got my weird ideas from books, and I am proud of that!

So yeah. I picked up this extra shift, and I picked up one for next Thursday, too – which is normally one of my only days off. I need the money, though, and it keeps me busy.

In the four hours between shifts, I went back to the house, Alex called me, I wasn’t really hungry but wanted coffee because I was tired, so we met at the MT Cup. Then, I decided after all that it would be foolish for me to buy coffee and/or lunch/dinner because I want to try saving money, even though Alex said he would buy me coffee. Instead, we decided on doing a somewhat traditional activity for us – Cats and Custard. We were supposed to do it a few weeks ago, but things have been a bit off lately. We went to Petsmart to look at the cats, and there was this tiny kitten that mewed when we came up to it and it was so CUTE and I wanted it, and there was a cat with no tail named “Stubby” and I was like, “I want it! I want a cat!” even though I can’t have one right now… and then we walked over to Ritter’s for frozen custard. Even though it makes me a little sad (because I can’t have the cats), I love Cats and Custard. It was such a nice treat today.

Then we came back and took a nap until I had to go back to the house and eat a light, early dinner before I came back to my home away from home.

I still love this job, though.

How Does This Look to You?

Yeah, I know, it’s pretty gross. But that’s my broken toe.

How did I get it? Well, let’s chalk it up to some of my sheer stupidity.

I  will say though, I had a lot of fun before I broke it…

(P.S. And no, alcohol was not involved.)

Of Muppets and The Lonely Island at 4:45 a.m.

Well, it doesn’t usually happen, but once in a while, a weekend ends up being rather lousy. Not to say it wasn’t bad, but it just wasn’t what I was hoping it would be.

On Friday, I read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde during my shift. It was short but interesting, and now I am reading The Picture of Dorian Gray. After my shift, I had lunch with Mike at the Pita Pit. I had never been before, and I found it tasty. Then I went and hung out with boyfriend for a little bit, watched Casino Royale with the guys, and had a short trip to the store for ice cream thrown in there as well.

Saturday, I worked, and I picked up a shift for next Friday. So nine hours of my day this upcoming Friday will be spent at Bracken Library, and approximately twelve hours after my shift that night, I’ll be going back for another round. Oh well. It’s a good job, and I need the hours.

I ate lunch and hung around Bracken some more, knitting and listening to my iPod for an hour or so while waiting for my laptop to charge. I needed to go grocery shopping, but the bus schedules are different on Saturdays, so I didn’t get to go. My next best chance to go will probably be on Monday after work, when I will be hungry.

Anyway, boyfriend called to hang out. We went for a walk because I needed one, then came back and he ordered pizza with the guys because I already had dinner. We watched Muppet Treasure Island, and I’m pretty sure it’s been years since I’ve seen it. Tim Curry has such a good evil laugh! I was highly entertained, and Lemmy, Matt, and I all agreed that Beaker was probably our favorite. I also like Animal and the Swedish Chef, though they don’t come close to my love for Beaker.

After the movie, boyfriend went back to his room to sleep, and I called Teddy because I just needed to talk to someone and I figured he would be awake. He wasn’t, but I woke him up and he kept talking to me. I stood outside talking to him for about an hour. I needed that; it was a good conversation. I made him laugh, he made me laugh, all was good. I miss that kid.

The house was dark and locked when I was going to go in to sleep, so I called Dom and he let me in. I went to bed, but there was a party going on in the house next door. Their music was so incredibly loud. I think I might have turned most of it out, but at 4:45 this morning, I heard them playing “I’m on a Boat” and I started laughing when I heard a very drunken girl singing along to it. Then I realized it was almost 5:00 in the morning and they were playing their music too loud and not letting me sleep. Rawr.

Today, even though it was my day off, I decided to come to Bracken and charge my laptop with one of the chargers available for checkout in my area. During this, since I had not received enough Muppet entertainment the night before, I checked out The Muppet Movie, which I had never seen, and The Emperor’s New Groove. I watched them both while knitting.

As for my project, it’s a scarf – yeah, another one. This is the pattern, and it is really easy to memorize. After watching two Muppet movies this weekend, the color of the yarn is really starting to make me think of Kermit the Frog. Haha.

Well, tomorrow is another day, and the beginning to another week…

Of Homesickness.

I have Thursdays off of work (currently), and I needed a little break, so I went back to Pendleton last night. Most times when I am in Pendleton, I don’t really go anywhere or do anything or see anyone, and you know, it really isn’t that bad.

Mom and I watched some episodes of Arrested Development and Harper’s Island (I love that show, it’s so dark and yet, just like a dollar store murder mystery paperback!) and I did three loads of laundry. I made lasagna to take back to Muncie – that will be dinner for a few nights. Mom and I also ate homemade strawberry shortcake and went to the June Jamboree. I haven’t been to the June Jamboree in years, but we had roasted sweet corn and burgers made by the Kiwanis Club – so tasty!

The best part about the June Jamboree, though, was that I saw my former English teacher, Ms. Douglas. She is so great, and she is an inspiration to me. I want to be as wonderful for my students as she is for hers. I haven’t seen her since October 2007 when I observed one of her class sessions, so seeing her (though it was short) made my day. I miss her.

Even though I don’t like a lot of things associated with my hometown, being there for a night reminded me of all the good things I miss.

I miss my mom most of all. I never used to be homesick, even when I would go visit my dad and family for months during the summer. I didn’t really miss Pendleton or Muncie that much last year when I visited them, but I missed Alex horribly. But I guess I do have some sense of homesickness currently, and last night did just the trick.

Now I’m back in Muncie. I have to work tomorrow, and then I’m going to have lunch with Mike somewhere. Everything’s going well except that I left my laptop power cord in Pendleton, and I will have to find another way to keep my laptop going until Tuesday…

Of Frankenstein and Dracula.

A few years ago, I borrowed a box of books from my father and stepmother. Some were for educational purposes, such as The Physics Handy Answer Book and numerous old English textbooks, while others were for pleasure. One of these books I chose for pleasure was actually an omnibus of horror – Frankenstein, Dracula, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I could not find the time to read it, however, and eventually, it just became another one of those books in a pile of things that I might get to in the next century or so, like many of my craft and sewing projects. Finally, I dusted off the book and decided I was going to read Frankenstein for a paper this past semester. Well, that did not exactly happen, either.

Now it is summer, and I am reading that book and many other books I have been meaning to for so long. I am not taking any classes, but I have my job at the library to go to. One of the bright aspects about my job, though, is that even if there are tasks for me to do – no matter how menial or complicated they can be – I always have a little time to read. Which, in turn, since I can’t really read at the house I am staying, gives me a little time to do more things, like reading, playing Alex’s DS, or watching movies and television series I have checked out from the library. So far, I am having an enriching summer doing things for which I rarely have time.

Anyway, I have finished reading Frankenstein and Dracula, and I was glad to finally read them. I love seeing the difference between the novels and their representations in pop culture. As a book lover, I do feel a little guilty that this copy has started to really show its wear, including a front cover I had to tape back on with precision. In a way, though, it gives it character – right?

Frankenstein starts with a basic premise – man thinks he can create life and creates a monster instead – but it has so much more to it. Victor Frankenstein is, in a sense, the ultimate deadbeat dad. He creates his creature and flees, hoping that all will remain forgotten and he can go on with his life. Wrong. Of course, it would not be the same if he just ditched his creation and never heard from it again.

My favorite aspect of Frankenstein is when the Creature confronts Victor Frankenstein. I enjoy his story – coming into the world, lost and alone, and his struggle for survive and for acceptance by society. He speaks with intelligence, unlike media portrayals, though there are some flaws in Shelley’s storytelling. For instance, even though he is observes the DeLaceys, I could not understand how he could so aptly learn speech and writing from just observation. I mean, obviously he had to understand enough in order to read John Milton’s Paradise Lost and to understand the concepts of the work.

“No distinct ideas occupied my mind; all was confused. I felt light, and hunger, and thirst, and darkness; innumerable sounds rang in my ears, and on all sides various scents saluted me; the only object that I could distinguish was the bright moon, and I fixed eyes upon that with pleasure.”

It really is so sad, the Creature’s rejection, and then his request to have another, a bride, denied, to be completely refused any happiness during his life. It might be somewhat morbid or disturbing for the Creature to murder so many people and willingly know that his actions were wrong, but I think Frankenstein deserved what he received in the end. I know, it sounds sick.

Dracula was also different from my expectations. Instead of a straightforward novel, it is entirely created from documents written by the characters. I felt it became a bit tedious at times, and I hated the ending. They kill the Count in one page! One! The entire novel is built up around him and his evil plans, and you expect a huge confrontation, and then it’s all, “Quincey gets stabbed by a gypsy, but he and Johnathan kill the Count and Mina is safe and everything’s going to be happy.” Dracula still had its suspense, though. I liked reading about Renfield, and about the Count’s attacks on Mina and Lucy and the vampire lore that Stoker created. Much better than, say, recent vampire novels where whiny, insecure, and angst-filled teenage girls fall in love with overpowered, whiny, insecure, angst-filled, sparkly vampires.

Seriously – if one wants to read a good vampire novel, pick Dracula, or any of Anne Rice’s vampire works, or my personal favorite, The Historian. I love The Historian, it’s so beautiful and amazing, and I would read it again this summer if I did not have a huge list of books I wanted to read for the first time.

Next on my reading list is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to finish up this tattered, beloved book. That shouldn’t take long. I must say, though, we have such fitting weather for Gothic literature – it has been raining heavily for the past couple of days, and it is surprisingly chilly.

New Leaves.

I am not a stranger to the concept of blogging by any means. When I was in high school, I wrote in online communities such as Blurty and LiveJournal frequently. About a year or two ago (it’s been so long I can’t remember) I found that I just did not have the time to update as much as I used to. I loved to write, though, which is sad.

So now I start anew. I welcome all readers, though please bear with me. I have changed so much since my old writings, and maybe this could  help me reconnect to my own self, who I feel I have lost over time. We will just have to see where this takes me.